c-span.org and on the free c-span radio app. william barr testifies before a house appropriations subcommittee regarding the president's 2020 budget request for the justice department. watch live coverage tuesday morning beginning at 9:30 eastern on c-span3. you can watch all of these events online at c-span.org or use the free c-span radio app. secretary of state mike pompeo announced this morning the u.s.'s designating iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps, a foreign terrorist organization, and the u.s. has never used the designation for an entire foreign government entity. iran has threatened to retaliate. secretary pompeo answers questions before turning the news conference over to the u.s. special representative for iran and the state department counterterrorism coordinator. this is about half an hour.

secretary pompeo: good morning. i'm here to make an important foreign policy announcement concerning the islamic republic of iran. today, the united states is continuing to build its maximum pressure campaign against the iranian regime. i'm announcing our intent to designate the islamic revolutionary guard corps, force, as s k quds a terrorist organization. this designation will take ffect one week from today. this is the first time that the united states has designated a part of another government as an f.t.o. we are doing it because the regime's use makes it different from any other government. this historic step will deny the leading state sponsor the financial means to spread misery and death around the world. businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to

ensure that companies with which they conduct the national -- financial transactions are in onnected to the irgc any material way. it gives the u.s. government tools to counter iranian-backed terrorism. this designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one and it builds on the more than 970 iranian individuals and entities that the trump administration has already anctioned. for 40 years, the islamic republic revolutionary guard corps has actively engaged in terrorism and created, supported, and directed other terrorist groups. a irgc masquerades as legitimate military organization but none of us should be fooled. it regularly violates the laws of armed conflict you and executes terror campaigns all around the world. from the moment it was founded,

the irgc's mandate was to defend and export the revolution by whatever means possible. institutionalized terrorism shortly after its inception directed horrific attacks against the marine barracks in 1983 and u.s. embassy annex. and its operative yous haveto destabilize the middle worked east. with this designation, the trump administration is simply recognizing a basic reality. the irgc will take its rightful place with the terrorist list it supports, lebanese hezbollah, islamic jihad, among others, already designated as foreign terrorist organizations. e long list of irgc-backed terrorism is ample justification for today's

decision. i want to give you a handful of examples. last september, federal court in the united states found iran responsible for the 1996 khobart towers bombing which killed 19 american service members. in 2011, united states found that the qods force right here in washington, d.c., to bomb a restaurant and the attempt was to kill the saudi ambassador to he united states of america. outside the united states, the irgc is just as active. they were planning to attack israeli targets in turkey. in that same year, two other quds force operatives were arrested in kenya while planning a bomb attack while they detected a bomb attack that targeted israeli diplomats. as recently as january 2018, german authorities uncovered quds force operatives in their country. the irgc supports palestinian terror groups that target innocent civilians and helped create terror groups both in lebanon and in iraq.

and it backs the murderous assad regime which gases and slaughters its own people. our designation makes clear to the world that iranian regime not only supports terrorist groups but engages in terrorism itself. this designation brings unprecedented pressure on figures who lead the regime's terror campaign. individuals like sulaman, the commander of the quds force and oversees the forces to deploy the islamic revolution through terrorism and other forms of violence. he dolls out profits to terrorist groups across the region and world. e blood of the 603 american soldiers the iranian regime is on its hands and on the hands of the irgc more broadly. the regime has faced no accountability from the international community for those deaths. far from being an arbitrary attack on iran, our campaign

imposes just and long overdue consequences for their maligned activity. we should not also forget the irgc's central rolecorruption of the regime's in the leaders which they perpetrate against the regime's own eople. other governments in the private sector will see how eply the irgc has meshed itself through illicit and list it means. the cooperative foundation which manages their investments has embezzled more than $1 billion from the city of tehran. the next month a former councilmember accused a longtime mayor of tehran of steering contracts to the irgc. it's no coincidence that the mayor also formerly served as irgc commander and chief of iran's police state. back in 2017, tehran arrested several irgc commanders involved in the fund for

corruption and including the financial architect mirdadi. -- there's mauck mauck mugmug's old college pals. they call him the billionaire germ. went from being a low-level operative to one of iran's richest man by scoring oil contracts. the leaders of iran are racketeers. the iranian people deserve hypocritical se and corrupt officials. they are opportunists. the irgc are responsible for wrongly detaining u.s. persons several of whom remain in captivity in iran. the american people should know we are working diligently to bring those individuals home. with this designation we are sending a clear message iran's leaders, including sulamani and his band of thugs,

that the united states is bringing all pressure to bear to outlaw their behavior. and we ask our allies around the world to do the same. thank you. >> secretary, we will have one or two questions and additional opportunity with some others. >> thank you so much, mr. secretary. [indiscernible] u.s. forces in the region after the resignation. and president trump is saying he should know better than to be thrown into another disaster. what's your answer? secondly [indiscernible] the u.s. is considering sanctions on the lebanese -- the head of the parliament of the lebanese speaker because of his ties with hezbollah and iran. can you confirm that? secretary pompeo on my most recent trip to beirut made clear to the lebanese leadership including conversations with speaker barry that america was not

going to tolerate the rise of hezbollah inside the country, that it wasn't in the best interest of the lebanese people to have an armed terror group underwritten by the very iran that we're speaking about today continue to have significant sway inside of that nation by use of force. this isn't about political parties. this is about armed forces inside the country of lebanon. we made clear we will continue to evaluate sanctions for all those that were connected. to the rest that was created to the lebanese people. as for the first question, i have seen the foreign minister make many statements before. we have made clear both publicly and privately that an attack on the united states of america is something that they ought to think more than twice about. reporter: i asked you this and he would weeks ago

didn't seem to know. what has changed? you have listed other terrorist organizations, will you treat them like isis and al qaeda? and separate note, prime minister netanyahu says he wants to annex the west bank. will that undermine the peace plan? secretary pompeo: when you say target, you are talking about the department of defense does. i'll allow them to respond to that question. [indiscernible]reporter: how does this affect e.u. trade? since the irgc is involved in most parts of the iranian economy, the question, including banking and everything else, how does this affect those relations? number two, if you -- you said often you want to bring iran to

the -- this is aimed at forcing iran back to the negotiating table. do you believe this would help bring them back? or is that no longer your aim here? secretary pompeo: we want iran to behave like a normal nation. we said 12 things they needed to do back in may of last year. that's the mission of this designation as well. so that's our purpose. if you said what's the intent? to achieve the outcome we laid out back in may of last year to do the simple thing like not launch missiles into saudi arabia and risking lives. reporter: how does this affect things on e.u. trade? secretary pompeo: here's the simple question to that. if you're a general counsel for a european institution, there's more risk. it is absolutely the case that the irgc amounts to a significant piece of the

iranian economy through pure ep to be rasi-i -- kleptocracy. and it is the case sometimes difficult to know whether they are involved, that the diligence effort. i think this will require more diligence be done with businesses that are considered second and third orders removed what you might think is a traditional connection to the iranian economy. this extends to your point about trade, you asked about oil waivers. we will make that decision in due course. as we move towards may 2. but this absolutely extends and creates clarity around those transactions that creates risk for companies not just in europe but frankly all over the world. reporter: what is the goal to shut down -- >> we now have special

representative for iran brian hook and assistant secretary for counterterrorism will take additional questions. >> this has been under consideration for a while, previous administrations have considered it as well. one of the reasons has been for not doing it to date that it creates complications particularly in iraq and also in lebanon and elsewhere for american soldiers but also merican diplomats. are there any exclusions, waivers, carveouts that would allow the kind of contacts articularly in iraq that american commanders or regular troops might have where people -- iraqi officials by virtue of their station they have to nteract with their

personnel. >> the irgc has been threatening troops. almost since its inception. whenever we impose sanctions on iran, it's usually followed by a range of threats. what endangers american troops in the middle east is an irgc that operates with impunity. and never has its ambitions checked in the middle east. we are taking an entirely new approach that is significant and sustained economic pressure to deny the irgc and the iranian regime of the revenue it needs to conduct its foreign policy. and we know that the irgc has been a principal architect and enforcer of iran's foreign policy since around 1979, the way the ayotolla designed the regime, and they are trying to reshape the middle east working as a power broker and military force.

they assassinate rivals not only in the middle east but europe. they organize, train, and equip militias. in syria, they direct a network of militant groups and in the case of iraq, they have killed ver 600 american servicemen. we think it's important to in this case today, we are adding a layer of additional sanctions on the irgc to make radioactive those sectors of iran's economy that are influenced or controlled by the irgc. i'll let nathan answer your second question. reporter: i just want to make sure, i am not talking about u.s. threats but threats to them from potential u.s. prosecution for violating sanctions by doing something that may be construed as providing material support to n irgc affiliate or associate. mr. sales: we are not going to

answer hypotheticals about various cases that could be conjured up in the future. we don't have anything to say on that. what i can tell you is that the united states strong interests in an iraqi government that is strong and stable and soverign and free from malign external influence. the record of iranian involvement in the region is not a promising one. look at syria, look at yemen, look at lebanon. we have an interest in making sure that iraq does not take that road and able to stand on its own two feet as a strong and prosperous country. in its own right. mr. hook: i would add one thing to that. the middle east cannot be more stable and peaceful without weakening the irgc. it's simply not possible. when you study their 40-year history, it's impossible to allow the irgc to operate under this fiction that it's a benign part of the iranian government.

it is the blunt instrument of iran's foreign policy and been that way for decades and what we are doing today in addition to the new tools that this gives us, we are also stigmatizing this organization. we're highlighting to the world, as the secretary just did, the perils of working with the irgc which, by some estimates, controls up to or more than half of iran's economy. reporter: does this rule out any sort of contacts with anyone connected to the irgc? i'm asking because, you know, in the past -- the last administration had to negotiate with the irgc to get american hostages out, for instance, or at least have some contacts ith members of the irgc. do you not have any kind of contact with people who are holding americans or people who are threatening americans in places like iraq?

mr. sales: let me tell you what the law provides. it is a federal criminal offense for any person who provides material support to a designated terrorist organization. that is what the irgc will be seven days from today. the application of that law, it's impossible to predict in advance what that's going to look like. we don't want to get into hypothetical situations. the point of this designation that the secretary just announced is to render the irgc radioactive until all businesses, all foreign officials who are thinking about engaging with the irgc should think long and hard about whether that makes sense. reporter: that includes u.s. government and american diplomats? mr. sales: this is the tool, the f.t.o. tool is something we have used since 1993, i want to say, over 60 times, and we're still able to execute our diplomacy and our foreign rter: without any -- repo this isn't the first time you have done it.

mr. hook: >> doing this will not impede our diplomacy. reporter: thank you for taking this. just to clarify on iraq. will you be requiring the iraqi government to turn over any suspected or known members of the iranian revolutionary guard since you declared them as terrorists? mr. hook: we're not making any demands of the yirkey government. as i said a moment ago, we hare the iraqi government's -- mr. sales: we are not going to make any demands of the iraqi government. as i said a moment ago, we share the iraqi government's interest in ensuring that the government of iraq is able to represent a proud and free and prosperous people without any undue influence from maligned actors. reporter: they will continue to operate freely in iraq? mr. sales: it is a criminal offense to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. how that applies in particular cases, we won't speculate about that right now. reporter: a commander warned if -- over the weekend an irgc commander warned that if the u.s. took this action, u.s.

forces in western asia will lose peace and quiet and it's obviously something we have been talking about. u.s. forces operating very close to the irgc members in iraq. is there more being done to provide safety measures to members of the u.s. military that are in close proximity or are you confident they are defended against the irgc? mr. hook: the decision leading up to this process was a full interagency process that included every member of the national security council. we have taken all measures that are appropriate and prudent in the context of this designation. with respect to iranian threats, when you play under house rules, the house always wins. and iran has a very long history of trying to get the world to play by its rules. and every time the world calls ut this regime for being a mafia racket, the irgc

, as the secretary said, resembles more a racket than a revolutionary cause. so whenever we and other nations call out and expose the regime for what it is, it behaves like a mafia organization. we will not be deterred by their threats. mr. sales: and we are not going to get into the details to make sure people downrange are safe. i can assure you that we take force protection very, very seriously. and that is why we have run a robust interagency process to make sure that all interested parties are prepared for whatever the iranian regime might throw at us. reporter: hi, guys. can you talk a little bit about the timing of this designation. i know there has been criticism, especially now, because u.s. troops are in close proximity and could put them at risk. we have been hearing about this for a year.

why now? ? at was the tipping point mr. sales: next step in our pressure campaign. this administration previously designated them for providing support. today we stripped away the plausible deniability. it's not that the irgc supports terrorism that its proxies undertakes. today, the irgc stands accused and convicted of directly engaging in terrorism itself. this new tool doesn't just add rhetorical heft to our campaign. it has practical, real-world consequences, as we just discussed. it is a federal criminal offense to provide support to a materially designated. the statute is an incredibly important tool. since 2001, since 9/11 we've used it to obtain hundreds of convictions. and the sentence for which you are eligible, if convicted, 20-year maximum penalty. this creates very powerful

deterrence for anyone who would provide material support to ted irgc or to any other designated organization. mr. hook: let me just add. the irgc -- reporter: go ahead, brian. mr. hook: we have said from the time the administration came into office that we were going to be taking a new approach to iran and you have seen over now two years. we had 25 rounds of sanctions. we designated almost a thousand individuals and entities. we left the iran deal which gave us economic leverage to go after the full range of threats that iran brings to peace and security. , is is just another chapter and there will be more chapters to come. this is a sustained and focused effort at the direction of the president that enjoys the full support of the national security cabinet. reporter: last time you were here you mentioned about the

600 number and the pentagon would give more guidance. do you have any contacts as to ow that number came about? mr. hook: there were estimates. i think in the obama administration someone said north of 500. it took a while to pull the information and be accurate about it. and the number that has come out from the defense department is over 600, i think the number is 603 -- >> go online at creeg amien: -- go online at c-span.org and search d.o.d. e h proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from minnesota seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move the house suspend the rules and agree to h. con. res. 16 authorizing the use of the capitol